The seventh and final GOP debate will go on as planned this evening even though the party's star presidential candidate is refusing to attend.

Donald Trump is boycotting tonight's Fox News debate over network host Megyn Kelly's alleged bias against him and will hold his own event across town at the same time to benefit veterans organizations.

Trump suggested this morning that other GOP candidates might follow his lead and skip the debate, too, but gave no indication of which of his rivals were considering a defection.

Mike Huckabee, slated to appear at the earlier undercard debate, said this afternoon that he would join Trump at his veterans event - but only after he's done on stage.

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The seventh and final GOP debate will go on as planned this evening even though the party's star presidential candidate, Donald Trump, is refusing to attend. He's seen here at a campaign event in South Carolina yesterday

CNN said this afternoon that Mike Huckabee, slated to appear at the earlier undercard debate, is going with Trump

Fox is moving forward with the the prime time debate, moderated by Kelly, center, Bret Baier, right, and Chris Wallace and airing at 9pm Eastern, regardless of Trump's decision not to attend because of his beef with the 'Kelly file' host

Publicly, his favorite punching bags have rejoiced that he won't be there, however, and expressed hope that they'll finally have an opportunity to discuss something other than the New York real estate mogul and his positions on the issues.

Fox is moving forward with the the prime time debate, moderated by Kelly, Bret Baier and Chris Wallace and airing at 9pm Eastern, regardless of Trump's decision not to attend because of his beef with the 'Kelly file' host.

Their feud dates back to the first Republican debate in August when she pressed him to defend his treatment of women.

The argument turned ugly, with Trump later appearing on CNN to trash talk Kelly, whom he said was so angry she had 'blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her...wherever.'

As this week's debate grew near, Trump re-upped his attacks on Kelly, calling her a 'lightweight' and questioning her professionalism.

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After he asked his social media followers if he should attend the debate at all, Fox fired live rounds in his direction, irking the billionaire enough that he pulled out of the event.

It said in a statement, 'We learned from a secret back channel that the Ayatollah and Putin both intend to treat Donald Trump unfairly when they meet with him if he becomes president - a nefarious source tells us that Trump has his own secret plan to replace the Cabinet with his Twitter followers to see if he should even go to those meetings.'

At a press conference that evening ahead of his Marshalltown, Iowa, rally, Trump said the statement, along with one signed by Fox News CEO Roger Ailes defending Kelly, pushed him over the edge.

'I was all set to do the debate. I came here to do the debate, but when they sent out the wise guy press releases a little while ago, done by PR person along with Roger Ailes, I said, bye, bye, OK?'

HUCK'S IN: Huckabee, a former Fox News host himself, is taking Trump up on his offer and heading to the veterans event after he's done with the undercard debate

Fox responded in kind that evening with a new statement in which it said: 'We’re not sure how Iowans are going to feel about him walking away from them at the last minute, but it should be clear to the American public by now that this is rooted in one thing – Megyn Kelly.'

Trump called for Kelly's removal from the stage as a moderator for several days before the dramatics reached a zenith, but Fox refused.

'Capitulating to politicians’ ultimatums about a debate moderator violates all journalistic standards, as do threats,' the statement said, 'including the one leveled by Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski toward Megyn Kelly.'

According to Fox, Lewandowski suggested that Kelly should recuse herself - or else.

'We can’t give in to terrorizations toward any of our employees,' it said. 'Trump is still welcome at Thursday night’s debate and will be treated fairly, just as he has been during his 132 appearances on FOX News & FOX Business, but he can’t dictate the moderators or the questions.'

And on her show that night Kelly defiantly said, 'I'll be there.'

She added, 'The debate will go on with or without Mr. Trump.'

Lewandowski has denied Fox's claims that he threatened Kelly and implied that the Fox News executive he spoke to is rooting for Marco Rubio because his daughter works for the senator's campaign.

And, he said, last night on CNN, 'This is not necessarily a war with Fox...it's about being treated fair on the debate stage.'

Ted Cruz will be front and center at Thursday night's debate in Des Moines, sponsored by Fox News Channel, because Donald Trump pulled out and Fox won't leave an empty podium for him

Trump's message to the network? Good luck with that.

'The "debate" tonight will be a total disaster - low ratings with advertisers and advertising rates dropping like a rock. I hate to see this,' he tweeted.

And in an earlier message he said, 'Wow, two candidates called last night and said they want to go to my event tonight at Drake University.'

Trump's campaign manager made a similar claim Wednesday morning on MSNBC.

'We've had calls from many of the candidates now who say, "Look, why would we participate in the Fox debate?" as well,' he said during a Morning Joe interview.

Lewandowski said he expects Fox's ratings to tank as viewers turn to another network to watch the Donald Trump show.

'Maybe Fox was going to have a 20 or 25 million person debate [audience],' he told the MSNBC 'Morning Joe' program. 'But without Mr. Trump's participation I think they might have a 1 or 2 million person debate.'

Jeb Bush, for his part, is calling what he thinks is a bluff.

'I've got a $20 bet he'll show up,' Bush said yesterday, according to the Associated Press. 'Why? 'Because it's in his interests.'

Bush predicted it would that Trump's ratings, not the networks, would take a dive as a result of the kerfuffle.

'I'm glad he's not coming, from my perspective. It's more time for the rest of us on the stage,' Chris Christie said on Wednesday during an interview on Boston Herald radio.

He said the night before on Kelly's show, though, that Trump was making a mistake. 'If you're not willing to show up when everything isn't going your way, exactly the way you want to, that's not the way the job of governor goes.'

Ted Cruz sought to capitalize on his rival's absence and told an Iowa crowd yesterday that Trump's decision was really about them.

'It's not that he's afraid of me,' Cruz said, per the AP. 'He's afraid of you. He doesn't want to answer questions from
the men and women of Iowa about how his record doesn't match
what he's selling.'

Rand Paul, who skipped the earlier undercard debate last time around because he wanted to be on the mainstage, had a similar theory.

'I think he does want to avoid difficult questions. And I think he's used to getting his way,' Paul said on CNN.

On Fox News Paul said the GOP front-runners explosion was 'sort of a double win for me. Not only am I on the main stage, but we don't have to put up with a lot of empty blabber and boastfulness and calling people names.'

And, he said, 'I think we'll actually have the best debate that we've had, and I think a lot of people are still undecided, and they know they're not really getting any serious content from Trump, they're just getting insults.'

Paul also suggested yesterday that Trump might show up at the last minute tonight - or, as he snarkily contended, at a future Democratic debate.

Trump may be 'afraid of the fact that he's never voted in a Republican presidential primary. For 70 years, he's been a progressive Democrat,' Paul said on CNN. 'I was wondering if maybe he's going to show up for the Democrat primary debate next time.'

Not gonna happen, Trump said yesterday of a surprise appearance at the Fox News debate tonight in Des Moines.

'I just don't like being used,' he told Bill O'Reilly on his Fox News program last night.

O'Reilly tried to get him to change his mind and even said, 'I bought you so many vanilla milkshakes, you owe me... Will you just reconsider?'

But Trump said he still plans to go ahead with his event at Drake University's Sheslow Auditorium, which seats up to 775 people to benefit 'veteran organizations'.

And even if he decided last-minute to come to the Fox debate, he wouldn't have a podium. Fox has said it will make Cruz, the runner-up in nationally polling, the center of its programming tonight.

He'll be joined on stage by six other GOP candidates for president: Bush, Ben Carson, Christie, Rubio, Paul and John Kasich.

It's the last face-off before Iowans cast their ballots on Monday in the state's caucuses.

Contenders for the White House will then move on to New Hampshire, which holds the nation's first primary on Tuesday, Feb. 9.

They'll go head-to-head again next Saturday in Manchester at a debate sponsored by ABC News.

In both states, Trump is ahead of Cruz by decent margins. Polls of Iowa have Trump beating Cruz by seven points on average. Surveys of New Hampshire suggest a double-digit blow out for Trump.

With Trump off at his own event, Cruz will try to re-position himself as the GOP leader in the 2016 contest. It also means he may take more arrows from his fellow contenders, however, particularly Rubio, whom he's aggressively sparred with at past debates.